Anita Bryant

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Anita Bryant (born March 25, 1940 in Barnsdall , Oklahoma , USA ) is an American singer who made a series of television commercials for orange juice from Florida and led several political campaigns against equal rights for lesbians and gays .

Early career

Bryant started singing in public at the age of two. In 1958 she was named Miss Oklahoma and took third place in the 1959 Miss America beauty pageant . She then became known for three pop songs: "Till There Was You" (1959); " Paper Roses " (1960) ( covered by Marie Osmond 13 years later ); and "In My Little Corner of the World" (1960).

In 1960 she married Bob Green, a disc jockey , in Miami . Bryant and Green have four children. In 1969, Bryant worked for the Florida Citrus Commission and made for this television commercial, which was broadcast all over the United States, in which she sang the song "Come to the Florida Sunshine Tree" and spread the advertising slogan: "A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine ”. After that, she also advertised Coca-Cola , Kraft Foods , Holiday Inn and Tupperware . She sang " The Battle Hymn of the Republic " during Lyndon Johnson's funeral in 1973 , and sang the national anthem at Super Bowl III (1969) .

Campaign against lesbians and gays

Advertising card from the Save Our Children organization to order the Protect America's Children newsletter , 1977
Anti-Bryant button : "Anita Bryant Sucks Oranges" It is based on a play on words: to suck means both "suck, suck" (the oranges) and "be real shit"

In 1977, Dade County , Florida, issued a human rights ordinance that outlawed discrimination based on sexual identity . Bryant, a member of the Southern Baptist Church, initiated a campaign aimed at withdrawing the ordinance, which received widespread attention. The campaign was based on the religious perception that homosexuality was sinful and the perceived threat of “recruiting” children for homosexuality.

Concern over homosexual recruiting even gave its name to Bryant's political organization: Save Our Children . During the course of the campaign, Bryant made various statements such as: For example: “As a mother I know that homosexuals are biologically incapable of producing children; therefore they have to recruit our children "and" If gays are given rights, the next thing we will have to do is to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernard dogs, as well as to nail-biters. "

On June 7, 1977, Bryant's campaign resulted in a 69% vote versus 31% for the regulation to be withdrawn. The following day, Bryant said:

“In victory, we shall not be vindictive. We shall continue to seek help and change for homosexuals, whose sick and sad values ​​believes the word 'gay' which they pathetically use to cover their unhappy lives. "

“In victory we will not be vengeful. We will continue to look for it, help and change for homosexuals to achieve their sick and sad values the word gay '[eng: cheerful ]. The lie that they use in pitiful way to cover up her unhappy life "

Bryant later also managed to get gay and lesbian adoption banned in the state of Florida. She also led campaigns elsewhere in the United States to end local anti-discrimination measures. In 1998, however, Dade County revised the consequences of Bryant's successful campaign from 20 years ago and re-enacted an ordinance to protect people from discrimination based on their sexual orientation. However, the Florida law banning gay people from adopting remained in place.

Backlash and bankruptcy

Anita Bryant's political success roused her opponents. She was one of the first people to be “ cakeed ” for political reasons ( a cake landed on her face in Des Moines in 1977 ). Gay activists called for a boycott of orange juice , in which many celebrities such as Barbra Streisand , Bette Midler , John Waters and Jane Fonda publicly participated.

Her political activism had a devastating effect on her entertainment career. Her contract with the Florida Citrus Commission was not renewed because of the negative headlines her campaigns generated and the boycotts that followed.

In 1980 they divorced from Bob Green. In 1990, Bryant married Charlie Hobson Dry. Together with her new husband, she tried to revive her career with a series of smaller appearances. However, there was no lasting commercial success. They filed for bankruptcy in Arkansas in 1997 and Tennessee in 2001 .

Others

  • Bryant's visit to Flint also appears in Michael Moore's 1989 documentary Roger & Me .
  • An episode of the American sitcom Will & Grace made fun of her in 2005 by suggesting she was lesbian or bisexual.
  • In the movie The Incredible Journey in a Crazy Airplane (original title: Airplane! ) Leslie Nielsen says in his role as Dr. Rumack - after passengers got sick from fish poisoning and vomited - the sentence: "Haven't seen anything like this since the Anita Bryant Concert" (I haven't seen anything like this since the last Anita Bryant concert). Since Anita Bryant did not become very well known outside of the USA, the joke about her cannot be heard in the German dubbing of the film and was made possible by a general reference to the last birthday party of Dr. Rumack replaced.
  • Singer David Allan Coe wrote a song called Fuck Aneta [sic!] Briant, which appeared on his 1978 album Nothing Sacred .
  • The Dead Kennedys released the song Moral Majority on their album In God We Trust, Inc. There they refer to Bryant and Phyllis Schlafly with the chorus "God must be dead if you're alive".
  • In the cinematic biography Milk about the murdered gay activist Harvey Milk , Anita Bryant is repeatedly mentioned as an opponent of the civil rights movement for gay and lesbian rights.
  • In the film Torch Song Trilogy (German Das Kuckucksei ), when buying clothes, one drag queen says to the other "That's too much Anita Bryant, I can't do it."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/slogans.html
  2. ↑ http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070909033107AAU4oCn
  3. ↑ The Ancient World ( Memento October 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Bryant, Anita
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Barnsdall , Oklahoma , USA